Cities 4.1

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Sustainable Cities

Sustainable cities programme based on:

environmentally sustainable urbanisation and improvement in quality of environment

economic sustainability of urban areas where there are disparities in wealth

social justice leading to equal access to facilities and equal quality of services

Futurity: cities cater for present on basis of past technologies which also have to provide for future generations and new technologies

Environment: the activities of cities consume energy, water, and food and produce waste and effects environment. They modify the environment in which they are located, often to the detriment of future inhabitants. Differing built environments will make different demands in resources to become sustainable.

Public Participation: people are stakeholders in the future of where they live

Equity and social justice: people need access to education, jobs and housing including services, water supply and waste disposal. Protection by the law and laws that enable human development are fundamental. Well-being is the ultimate goal.

4.1 How can cities throughout the world be classified?

Size

Towns - urban areas with range of facilities

Cities - large settlements depending on commerce, manufacturing and service industries

Conurbations - urban areas that have gradually fused together yet maintain different centres

Metaconurbations - bands of continuous urbanisation e.g European banana

Megacities - cities with over 10 million people that are also centres of global economy, 23 megacities including London, Tokyo and NY

Millionaire cities/metacities - cities whose population is million or more, metacities refers to largest cities such as Mexico City

Other ways of classifying by size include:

population employed in tertiary employment

areal extent of city

extent of redeveloped or new business areas

proportion of younger ages groups living in city

number of private vehicles

size and relative importance of employment in industry, government, cultural activities, retail, education, administration and financial services

Rate of growth

Urbanisation is the process by which the proportion of the population living in an urban areas increases.

Urbanisations in MEDCs took place alongside industrialisation in the 19th century and the growth of tertiary and quaternary sectors in the late 20th century

In NICs and LEDCs it has taken place without industrialisation as cities became centres for services and government

1900 only 5% of world's population lived in cities, 2010 over 50%

Regional migration accounts for changing urban populations

Asia is urbanising rapidly although the pace is predicted to slow down when many cities become wealthier as RICs develop.

Sub-saharan africa is urbanising rapidly as people are moving to cities despite economic stagnation

About 200,00 people migrate to cities across the world every month

Level of development

Even in highly urbanised Western Europe in recent years contracting economic growth has increased inequalities in cities in the UK.

Transition countries have increasing levels of inequality. Urbanisation in developing countries is causing increased levels of poverty in cities, 25-50% live in informal settlements, half the urban population suffer from diseases associated with inadequate water and waste water disposal.